Essentially, there is no future for “MobileMe,” per se.
There is, however, a nice future ahead for us.
We no longer have to pay for the service.
We keep the email addresses we have established.
Some of the nice features that will come as part of Apple’s new
FREE iCloud service:
1. Using a new technology called “PhotoStream,” when you take a picture on your iPhone, it will automatically be sent to the “iCloud,” and then moved to your Mac, PC, iPad, AppleTV and any other iPhones you have set up with your iCloud account. You don’t have to do anything. It just happens. The last 1000 photos will be saved online, and you can choose, on your Mac or PC, which to keep permanently.
2. In an order to remove the PC or Mac from the iPhone/iPad equation, all apps, books, and music purchased no longer need to be stored on a computer. (This has already been implemented.) Instead, if you open iTunes, the App store, or iBookstore on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you will see a tab with all of your previously purchased items, available for downloading, at any time, on any device. This has already taken effect. Check of you don’t believe me. Open iTunes, and click the “Purchased” button to the right on the bottom.
3. All of your bookmarks, contacts, email accounts, settings, certain kinds of documents, and a lot more information will be moved to whatever device you are on at that moment. These items will be stored in “iCloud” much in the way that Windows computers with “off-line synchronization” enabled used to, just more efficient and less error prone. The big difference here is, regardless of whether you are on a Mac, PC, iPad, iPod, or whatever else in in the works, you log into your iCloud account, and everything shows up. Just like that.
4.One of the best parts of the iCloud system is that apple has created something called API, or Application Programming Interface. Essentially what this means is that any developer can write a program that can read and write to your iCloud with your permission.
There is so much potential for this service, and this is just the beginning.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk about potential issues/problems with iCloud, such as space management, and security of data, but my main topic will be
iOS 5.
